When Burbank-based visual effects studio FuseFX began working on the new season of Showtime’s “United States of Tara,” it turned to Nuke, The Foundry’s powerful compositing application, which is normally thought of as primarily a feature film compositing tool, or for CG/3D multi-pass TVC workflow. As the series requires extensive green screen effects, given the […]

As part of our continuing labor series we sit down with Tom Walsh, President of the Art Directors Guild to discuss the role of the Guild. We talk about job categories represented by the Guild, the global business, how the Guild relates to the visual effects business and much more. Tom is also a working […]

In the new fxguidetv episode we have an exclusive first look at the texturing and paint software Mari with The Foundry’s Bill Collis and Jack Greasley. Mari was developed at Weta as the in house tool, and is now moving to the Foundry. Mari is a remarkable paint and texturing tool able to handle very […]

Silhouette has always been an incredibly strong tool, in large part due to its dedication to a specific task: roto. This week, version 4 was released which contains major enhancements and additions to the application. The first is what is called “Power Matte”, which uses inner-outer shape algorithms to determine the edges of the object. […]

Last night the first in a series of online town hall meetings was held – organized by Lee Stranahan, the panelists were Chris deFaria -Vice President, Warner Bros. Pictures, Jefferey A. Okun – Visual Effects Society Chair and visual effects supervisor and Scott Ross – Co-Founder of Digital Domain & former CEO of Industrial, Light […]

Monday, March 29th at 7pm (Pacific) there will be “an open discussion of a visual effects industry in transition”. This free online townhall meeting has been put together by Lee Stranahan, a former visual effects artist and writer for The Huffington Post whose Open Letter To James Cameron: Fairness For VIsual Effects Artists sparked a […]

All week there have been rumors that CafeFX is closing. Today Jeff Barnes responded to this chatter by way of David S. Cohen at Variety who said via Twitter (@Variety_DSCohen): Jeff Barnes of CafeFX texted me they are “downsizing and retooling, not closing.” and “Barnes of CafeFX also writes “We did NOT lay everyone off. […]

The Foundry held its second Master Class in London on Friday, playing to packed house at the Vue theatre in Leicester Square. The event was standing-room only, having given away all the seats in only 24 hours when it was announced earlier this year. The event focused on stereoscopic production and post…a timely program after […]

It appears that C.O.R.E Digital is closing down. C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, was one of Canada’s leading digital visual effects and animation studios, based in Toronto, Ontario. The company is closing very abruptly, it seems. Reports on the net are circulating that this closure was so sudden employees entitlements may be in question, (we have not […]

In the last 48 hours an amazing video has swept the net. The OK Go “This Too Shall Pass” music video – built and engineered by a creative geek group of mad scientists, art lovers, and inspired geniuses that collectively go by the name of Syyn Labs. As Adam Sadowsky, of Syyn Labs, was getting […]

The 8th Annual VES Awards were held tonight, Sunday, February 28th at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. James Cameron was honored with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Ed Catmull with the George Melies Award for Pioneering. Avatar took a lot of awards with District 9 besting it in one […]

Red Centre 56 podcast out. This is our biggest show ever, with Red and Canon news, Jeff’s Heusser reports from LA on the February Red Day. And Shane Hurlbut ASC (Terminator Salvation DOP ) kicks down the door of the Red Room. Click the more button below for a portfolio of images from Shane Hurlbut, […]

A week ago Lee Stranahan wrote an article in the Huffington Post titled: Open Letter To James Cameron: Fairness For Visual Effects Artists. Lee has opened a wider dialogue for a topic we have been championing for years. We discuss what led him to write the article, the reaction, what should happen next and issue […]

Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards® were announced early this morning by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For the visual effects category this means the field is now narrowed from seven to these three nominated films: Avatar Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones District 9 Dan Kaufman, Peter […]

The Life, a live action short directed by MJZ’s Rupert Sanders to promote the launch of Halo 3: ODST for the Xbox 360, features visual effects by Asylum as we follow Tarkov, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, through training and a major battle sequence. Visual effects supervisor and lead compositor Rob Moggach tells fxguide how […]

Late last year, The Foundry announced a tech sharing agreement with Sony Pictures Imageworks which included access to SPI’s Katana 3D software. Since that time, there has been some discussion (even grumbling) on the net and mailing lists about The Foundry losing focus regarding the heart of Nuke: compositing. If you’ve watched some of the […]

In Shorts, director Robert Rodriguez delivers his trademark colourful imagery to tell the story of a young boy’s wish-granting rock discovery. Working alongside the director were artists at Rodriguez’s own Troublemaker Studios who, with other effects studios, delivered a bevy of fun visual treats, including an impressive booger monster. Troublemaker’s Chris Olivia talks to fxguide […]